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We Now Know Where Lois Lerner's Emails and Backup Tapes Were Destroyed
Townhall.com ^ | July 31, 2015 | Katie Pavlich

Posted on 07/31/2015 12:59:57 PM PDT by jazusamo

There have been dozens of questions surrounding the disappearance of emails belonging to former IRS official Lois Lerner, the woman at the center of the IRS targeting scandal. Some of Lerner's emails have been recovered, after IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said under oath they were lost forever. Thousands are still missing. But perhaps the most compelling questions that have been asked since the IRS targeting scandal broke in May 2013 are 1) Exactly where were Lerner's emails and backup tapes destroyed? 2) Who destroyed them?

Now, we have an answer. According to Americans for Tax Reform,Lerner's hard drive was destroyed by the IRS "Midnight Unit" in West Virginia:

Backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 Lois Lerner emails were destroyed by an IRS entity officially known as the "Media Management Midnight Unit" located in Martinsburg, West Virginia, according to documentation released this week by the House Oversight Committee. In all, 422 backup tapes holding the emails were magnetically "degaussed" despite an agency-wide preservation order and congressional subpoena. Degaussing is a process whereby powerful magnets are used to erase data on a storage tape.

The preservation order came from IRS Chief Technology Officer Terence Millholland in response to Congressional subpoenas over Lois Lerner's emails. However, the agency completely failed to ensure the order was followed or understood. According to the House Oversight report:

-"The IRS failed to ensure compliance with the preservation order at each turn. The IRS failed to confirm compliance with the preservation order in February 2014, upon learning of the gap in emails; failed to ensure the Media Management Midnight Unit, the team that destroyed the backup tapes, properly understood the preservation order; and failed to make certain that individuals who ordered the destruction of the specific media, in this instance the backup tapes, properly understood the preservation order."

Keep in mind Lerner's hard drive didn't simply "crash" on its own, but instead had physical damage. According to one Treasury Inspector General, the hard drive likely crashed due to "an impact of some sort." The question is who damaged the hard drive and whether it was done on purpose to destroy evidence.

New documentation released by the House Oversight Committee this week again raises questions on how Lois Lerner's hard drive was physically damaged and whether there was some kind of deliberate act to destroy data on it.

The House Oversight Committee report cites an officially transcribed interview with John Minsek, senior investigative analyst with the IRS Criminal Investigations (CI) unit. Minsek examined the Lerner hard drive in 2011. In the transcribed interview, he notes Lerner's hard drive contained "well-defined scoring creating a concentric circle in the proximity of the center of the disk."

Earlier this week a federal judge threatened to "haul into court the IRS Commissioner to hold him personally into contempt," for ignoring court orders and refusing to turn over emails belonging to Lerner by deadline.



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; US: Virginia; US: West Virginia
KEYWORDS: backuptapes; contempt; corruption; emails; harddrive; impeachnow; irs; irsmidnightunit; koskinen; loislerner; midnightunit
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1 posted on 07/31/2015 12:59:57 PM PDT by jazusamo
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To: jazusamo

Nixon was on a plane to San Clemente by this point.


2 posted on 07/31/2015 1:01:53 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: jazusamo

People should be in prison.


3 posted on 07/31/2015 1:01:56 PM PDT by lacrew
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To: jazusamo

May have destroyed her drive but those emails were sent somewhere to someone. . .find out who she regularly communicated with and check their servers. . .


4 posted on 07/31/2015 1:01:56 PM PDT by Hulka
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To: jazusamo
Contemptuous _itch.
5 posted on 07/31/2015 1:02:05 PM PDT by gov_bean_ counter
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To: lacrew

Yep, a lot of people.


6 posted on 07/31/2015 1:03:12 PM PDT by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin....and the turkey has.)
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To: jazusamo

Destroying evidence is the equivalent to being guilty of the crime accused of. The director of the IRS and Lois Lerner should be in Federal prison right now, serving no less than 10 years.


7 posted on 07/31/2015 1:03:30 PM PDT by Tzfat
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To: lacrew

Traitors are hanged.


8 posted on 07/31/2015 1:03:36 PM PDT by null and void (If the government can't protect the Marines, how can we expect it to protect us?)
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To: jazusamo

You can just look into that witch’s vacant eyes and tell she lies.


9 posted on 07/31/2015 1:04:00 PM PDT by PROCON (FReeping on CRUZ Control)
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To: jazusamo
Subpoena every individual involved in the destruction of Lerner's hardware. Find out where the orders came from then subpoena THEM too. Work on up the chain. ABSOLUTELY SUBPOENA VALERIE JARRETT BECAUSE THE FACT WE NEVER HEAR ANYTHING ABOUT HER IN CONNECTION WITH THESE SCANDALS IS INDICATIVE THAT SHE'S KNEE DEEP INVOLVED IN THESE SCANDALS..

SUBPOENA VALERIE JARRET!!! I'm sick and tired of this B*TCH going into PERMANENT hiding. Bring her OUT of the shadows!

10 posted on 07/31/2015 1:04:27 PM PDT by CivilWarBrewing
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To: jazusamo

She will not be under the bus till Jan 2017, after all, she is WHITE.


11 posted on 07/31/2015 1:04:58 PM PDT by corbe
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To: jazusamo

Criminal SOBs. Their reward will come sooner or later.


12 posted on 07/31/2015 1:06:22 PM PDT by vpintheak (Man up and bring it politicians!)
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To: jazusamo

Begin impeachment of Koskinen NOW!

It’s a winning political strategy.

Most Americans dislike the IRS.

How many Dems in Congress will go on record to support him in an election year?

Bombard Hillary with questions about her position on it.

Take some scalps!


13 posted on 07/31/2015 1:07:52 PM PDT by nascarnation (Impeach, convict, deport)
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Please bump the Freepathon or click above to donate or become a monthly donor!

14 posted on 07/31/2015 1:08:46 PM PDT by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin....and the turkey has.)
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To: jazusamo
They destroyed the drive for one reason: it had VERY incriminating evidence that Lerner had direct communication with Valerie Jarrett and possibly even President Obama himself. And possibly reveal the confidential tax information on Right-leaning 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) groups were passed on to Democratic National Committee headquarters--possibly even the White House itself.
15 posted on 07/31/2015 1:10:13 PM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: jazusamo

A concentric circle worn into the surface platter is a typical head crash indicator. Who identified the concentric ring worn into the platter? Is the drive still available? Because on its own, the concentric ring worn or etched into the platter is a nothing.

They need to see who reported this and find out how they knew and why they knew, both the scratch and that it was Lois Lerners drive. I wouldn’t expect a common broken hard drive to undergo scrutiny before it was destroyed — unless it was specifically requested to try and recover the data.


16 posted on 07/31/2015 1:10:34 PM PDT by Fhios (I hope Trump can keep us entertained for the next 6 months.)
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To: jazusamo

Barack Hussein Soetoro has singlehandedly destroyed the integrity of the government of the United States.


17 posted on 07/31/2015 1:11:32 PM PDT by immadashell (The inmates are running the asylum.)
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To: nascarnation

Well said.

Start with that weasel Koskinen then prosecute him and Lerner to, they both belong in a federal slammer then go after the rest of these criminals.


18 posted on 07/31/2015 1:13:26 PM PDT by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin....and the turkey has.)
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To: onyx; jazusamo

PING TO MYSELF TO COME BACK TO THREAD WHEN I RETURN FROM ERRANDS!


19 posted on 07/31/2015 1:16:26 PM PDT by onyx (PLEASE Support FR - GO MONTHLY - Join CLUB 300 - God bless FR's Donors!)
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To: jazusamo

What are the names of the members of the “Midnight Unit?”


20 posted on 07/31/2015 1:18:43 PM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Isn't it funny that Socialists never want to share their own money?)
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